BHOPAL: With many parts of Madhya Pradesh’s Kanha tiger reserve including the inviolate core zone coming under Maoist control, the state police have decided to set up three outposts in the core area and also sought the deployment of four battalions of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in the country’s oldest regulated forest, officials said.
The reserve, situated on the Chhattisgarh-Madhya Pradesh border, has 110 tigers according to the 2010 estimation and 80% of the country’s swamp deer population. It now has Maoist presence in four of the six zones of the tiger reserve, the officials confirmed. “We have regular movement of armed Maoists in four core zones of KTR,” said SK Singh, the reserve’s field director.
Indravati in Chhattisgarh and Palamu in Jharkhand are two tiger reserves said to be under Maoist control.
“Their (Maoist) plan is to spread their area of influence to Amarkantak in Anuppur district through the forest,” said a senior police officer, who is part of MP’s anti-Maoist operations.
Admitting the presence of rebels in Kanha, Sameer Saurabh, superintendent of police, Balaghat, said, “Despite their presence, anti-Maoist forces and local police are dominating the area. But, their influence is increasing and to keep them under check, setting up of outposts and getting additional battalion are important.”
The Maoists started entering Balaghat district of MP about five years ago in a bid to expand their base from Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. In 2022, three districts - Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori – were declared Maoist-affected.
{{/usCountry}}The Maoists started entering Balaghat district of MP about five years ago in a bid to expand their base from Chhattisgarh and Gadchiroli in Maharashtra. In 2022, three districts - Balaghat, Mandla and Dindori – were declared Maoist-affected.
{{/usCountry}}Police records show that in the past four years, seven Maoists were killed in gunfights with police and one was arrested. Maoists have killed three villagers and a forest contractual employee suspecting them to be police informers. Sukhdev Parte, 25, an assistant of Parsatola forest beat guard, was shot dead on March 23.
Kanha a safe haven for Maoists
The saal-bamboo forest having savanna grassland provides Maoists with the perfect ambience to hide their movement. Unlike the hilly Satpura ranges, Kanha is easier to navigate on foot and is also very close to Kabir Dham and Mungeli districts of Chhattisgarh, providing an easy escape route in case of anti-Maoist operation, a senior police officer quoted above said.
Being the oldest maintained forest in India, retired forest official, Rakesh Shukla, describes Kanha as one of the “best forest areas in the country, which is home to 800 of 1,000 swamp deer in the country. “The well-maintained forest is helping the Maoists to run their operations,” he said.
Kanha, which has 110 tigers including 80 adults, has a negligible human presence in the core area of about 940 sq km. Shukla said the peaceful environment and easy terrain become safe haven for Maoists, said Shukla.
A few months ago, union environment minister Bhupendra Yadav wrote to the state government seeking an action plan to deal with the growing influence of Maoists in Kanha. As a result, the forest department allowed the home department to set outposts in buffer areas.
“The core area has about 130 including 118 permanent patrolling camps of the forest department. In the camps, there are staff of two people- a guard and his assistant guard. They are equipped with mobile phones and wireless only. They can’t fight with Maoists. When a group of armed men and women come to their camp to collect rations or other useful items, the guard has no option but to provide rations to them. Now, Maoists are taking cooked food from them,” said JS Chauhan, principal chief conservator of forest (wildlife).
He added that Maoists take away wireless and mobile phones hampering conservation efforts. To ensure that this does not continue, the forest department has allowed the police to take charge inside the core areas.
“We find out that it was a planned strategy of Maoists to terrorise the people of Malakhedi village near Mukki range to keep the villagers in their favour so we have decided to set up an outpost there,” said Balaghat SP, Sameer Saurabh.
“We are setting up an outpost between Khapa buffer zone and Mukki core zone. The outpost will have a trained staff of 60 personnel of hawk force and they can reach Malakhedi village in just 20 minutes to instil a feeling of security among villagers. Two more outposts will be set up soon near Supkhar and Bhainsagarh,” he added.
Inspector general, anti-Maoist operations, Farid Shapu said, “To increase the domination, we are setting up outposts. Similarly, we have written to Union ministry of home in June 2021 to provide four CRPF battalion and now, we pushed it and we are hopefully getting two soon.”
RTI activist and environmentalist Ajay Dubey said, “In Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, the tiger reserves were destroyed because of Maoists. Their modus operandi is the same everywhere. First, they enter the forest and do not create any destruction to seek the support of forest officials to understand the area properly. Later, they create terror among people and stop guards from patrolling. Poachers and locals become active in the forest to end wildlife.”
In MP, they have already taken the first step. Now, it is necessary to take serious steps otherwise we will lose Kanha Tiger Reserve, said Dubey.